The hard-drive in my head is all full up and there’s not any room for anything else. Try as I might to cram more into it, it simply will not “save.” This has become a problem not only in everyday life, but also with my writing. When I research a historical, I might read anywhere from six to twenty-plus books and skim several more. As I write the novel, I’ll get to a certain scene–let’s say the master and mistress are at the dinner table–and I think, “Now I know I read something somewhere that outlined a typical uniform for a footman at the turn of the century. Now, where was that?”
Then I spend a bunch of time grabbing those books and flipping through them as I look for the passage that I remembered reading. Next thing I know, two hours have passed. So, for these last few books, I started making notes to myself in the margins of the books as I read them. I might put a note that says: “footman, uniform” or “saloon, names of” or “streets, paved.” Just any little note that will give me a clue as to what that page was about.
Then, I have an assistant type up all my footnotes into an excel file. Each entry includes the penciled-in note, the name of the source and the page number. So now all I do is open my excel file, do a search-and-find for “footman”, then peruse the footman entries for one that says “footman, uniform.” Beside it there might be several sources referenced. But the bottom line is, I can find the exact passage I was looking for in a matter of minutes.
Even with the contemporary I wrote, I did this for things like local lore or famous landmarks or topography, etc. What about you? How do you keep up with your research? Please don’t tell me you keep it all in your head. That would be SO not fair!
No related posts.
Your assistant creates your spreadsheet?
I’m still at the ‘everything is all over’ stage. Maybe when I get to the “Have my assistant … ” stage I’ll be able to organize things. However, by the time I need something, the technology has changed so much, my research would be out of date anyway. I spend most of my time trying to figure out ways to get around the instant communication systems and other technological advances that make books out of date before they see print.
I keep it in a heap beside me at the computer and in my head too. My problem is finding a publishing professional who believes my facts which, apparently, are stranger than fiction.
I create a WIP binder divided into sections for plot, characters, research, my notes, and notes from my crit partners. When it gets too big to carry out to the coffee shop or the bookstore where I sometimes work, I just take out the section I’ll need for that chapter and bring it with me. I got the idea from:
http://www.writer2writer.com/notebook.htm
http://www.teresciaharvey.com/hea/articles/projbinder.html
I use post-it notes to mark the pages with useful details.
I set up a blog and keep most of my research info there. This does a few things… I can easily search on key words, I can organize it based on categories, it allows others to use the same research (nothing proves that romance is serious writing like a few thousand posts of research), it gives my readers something extra, it drives traffic I can promote to, and it builds an asset (I could sell the blog).
Wow! Great stuff, girls. I have a WIP binder, too, Chicki! Except mine is a color-coded spiral, so there’s no “taking out” one section or the other. When I do take the spiral with me somewhere, I always wonder what I’d do if I ever left it or lost it. Ohmygosh. Scary! (Great links, btw. Thanks for those!)
I know what you mean about stranger-than-fiction, Kimber A. I get that all the time from my editor or crit partners (”No way, Dee. No one would ever believe this.) LOL.
Okay, Kimber C. I want your blog address!!
It’s mostly in my head . . . though I’m lucky enough to have a really good memory for where I saw/read something too and can usually put my hand on it within minutes. I’ve had to learn the art of just making a comment in WORD though (when I first started out, I had to have the detail right before I could move on; thank god I got over that!).
I do have spreadsheets that I’ve built up over the years though: One for important events (news paper headlines, murders, wars, anything that might have impacted my characters’ lives), one for money (just a list of what things cost that I add to as I stumble across tidbits), one for the arts (books being published and music being performed, etc).
Love the spreadsheet idea. I spend way too much time re-researching. I am going to have to develope one.
Photo copy it and file under the research category. Much easier to pull it and have it at your fingertips………….